Pak, India to discuss timeline for trade liberalisation

ISLAMABAD - ndian Minister for commerce and industry Nirmala Sitharaman will meet her Pakistani counterpart Khurram Dastgir Khan for the first time next month to discuss a fresh roadmap for removing bottlenecks in liberalization of bilateral trade.The meeting between Sitharaman and Kastgir Khan will take place on the sidelines of SAFTA ministerial council in Bhutan on July 24. “I will meet the Indian state minister for commerce for resumption of bilateral trade talks,” Dastgir said. It will be first high-level trade interaction since the BJP came to power. An official of commerce ministry told PTI that trade liberalisation will be on the top of the agenda at the meeting. “We missed an early deadline of December 31, 2012 to remove all hurdles in the trade relations. Now the two governments will try to agree on fresh roadmap for it,” he said. He said India should address concerns of business community in Pakistan regarding non-tariff barriers and other issues which could impact export after trade liberalisation.